Inside The Blaze’s Pipe-Bomb Face-Plant

Summary

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Bulwark Takes — Inside The Blaze’s Pipe-Bomb Face-Plant

December 6, 2025
Host: Sam Stein, with guest Will Sommer

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the major media blunder by The Blaze, which falsely accused a former Capitol Police officer of being the January 6th pipe bomber. With the real suspect arrested just days earlier, hosts Sam Stein and Will Sommer break down how right-wing narratives unraveled, the probable defamation fallout for The Blaze, and implications for broader conspiracy theories around January 6.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background: The Blaze’s False Accusation

• The Event: The Blaze published a story naming a female former Capitol Police officer as the January 6 pipe bomber based on dubious “gait analysis.”
• The Mistake: The FBI just arrested Brian Cole—a man, not the accused woman.
• Media Impact: The Blaze faces not just embarrassment, but likely a significant defamation lawsuit.
• Wider Spread: The story was amplified not just by The Blaze but by members of Congress (e.g., Anna Paulina Luna, Thomas Massie) and right-wing influencers, fueling conspiracy theories.

Notable Quote:

"You can't just really... Did you go to J school, Sam?”
“I did, actually, yeah."
“Did they teach you that typically you shouldn't write articles saying someone's probably a terrorist if you don't really have evidence of that?"
— Will Sommer & Sam Stein [02:57–03:06]

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2. The Faulty “Science” and Blaze’s Process

• Pseudoscience: The Blaze relied on a supposed “96% gait match” between the accused and the pipe bomber, using footage from the officer’s college soccer games for comparison.
• Lack of Due Diligence:
  • No apparent contact with the accused before naming her.
  • Did not seek meaningful comment from law enforcement (FBI or DOJ).
  • Ignored the officer’s alibi—she had video of herself playing with puppies at the time the bombs were planted (a “perfect alibi”, as CBS News reported).

Notable Quote:

"Normally, what you would do is, first of all, you wouldn’t go on whatever the hell gait analysis is, okay? … And obviously, you would go to the person you’re accusing of being a terrorist."
— Sam Stein [04:26]

• Escalation: Members of Congress and DOJ figures spread and lent legitimacy to the claim on social media.

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3. The Fallout for The Blaze

• FBI Response: FBI even publicly mocked The Blaze’s reporter, Steve Baker (himself a January 6 defendant), on social media after the arrest.

• Blaze’s Actions:

  • Retracted the article only after the real suspect was arrested.
  • Initially left the article up, then deleted it entirely.

• Internal Chaos: Sam and Will imagine the editorial frenzy:

  “I would be in a meeting and I would be like, you know, I’d have to have a bottle of bourbon or something. I would just be like, what do we do? … They must have been flipping out.”
  — Sam Stein [08:16]

• Legal Fate: The wrongly accused officer’s attorney is signaling a big defamation lawsuit.

  "It was totally fake... the language suggested there’s a defamat lawsuit coming."
  — Will Sommer [09:42]

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4. The Suspect: Brian Cole and the Right-Wing Conspiracy Narrative

• Arrested Suspect: Brian Cole, who reportedly believed in 2020 election conspiracy theories, is now cooperating with the FBI.

• Collapse of Conspiracy Theories:

  • For years, the right claimed the pipe bomb was a “false flag” to frame January 6 rioters.
  • Now, with a Trump-supporting conspiracist as the actual suspect, that theory is undermined.

  "...if this guy, Brian Cole is saying, in fact he was someone who believed that the election was stolen from Trump, that's just an incredible development."
  — Sam Stein [11:25]

• Press Conference: The FBI remained tight-lipped about Cole's motives at the press conference, fueling ongoing speculation.

• Caution Urged: Sam emphasizes not to jump to conclusions about motivations and to await more details.

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5. Blaze’s Future and Legal Jeopardy

• Comparison to Fox News: Unlike Fox, The Blaze can’t easily afford a major settlement; even a multi-million dollar lawsuit could be fatal.
• Glenn Beck’s Distance: Glenn Beck, associated with The Blaze, is apparently moving on to other ventures.
• Editorial Survival: The Blaze’s remaining stars are mentioned, but its overall future looks grim.

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6. Discussion: Could the Pipe Bomber Be Pardoned?

• Theory Floated: Will suggests the Trump pardon for January 6 rioters could potentially cover Brian Cole.

• Skepticism: Sam expresses doubt that any administration—or Justice Department—would allow that.

• Exchange on Fairness: Will half-jokes about the hypocrisy if “all the other January 6 crimes” are pardoned, but not the pipe bomber.

  "It is a little unfair to the pipe bomber... all the other crimes... were fine. But the pipe bombs that didn’t go off, this is the..."
  — Will Sommer [15:34]

• Betting on Legal Outcome: Their friendly banter leads to a mock wager on Polymarket.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------------------|:-----------:| | Introduction & Background | 01:18–02:15 | | Blaze’s Faulty Reporting and ID Mistake | 02:15–05:50 | | The Officer’s Alibi and Intelligence Community Response | 05:18–06:21 | | Fallout, Deletion, & Internal Editorial Chaos | 06:21–09:11 | | Defamation Lawsuit Expected | 09:35–10:21 | | The Suspect (Brian Cole) and Collapse of “False Flag” Theories | 10:24–12:55 | | Broader Narrative & Right-Wing Media’s Challenge | 12:24–13:59 | | Lawsuit Impact & Glenn Beck’s Distance from Blaze | 13:37–14:10 | | Could the Pardon Apply to the Pipe Bomber? | 14:27–16:32 |

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Journalistic Standards:

  “Did they teach you that typically you shouldn’t write articles saying someone’s probably a terrorist if you don’t really have evidence of that?”
  — Will Sommer [02:58]

• On The Blaze's Editorial Debacle:

  “I would be in a meeting and I would be like, you know, I’d have to have a bottle of bourbon or something... They must have been flipping out. Flipping out. Crazy.”
  — Sam Stein [08:16]

• On the Collapse of a Major Conspiracy Theory:

  “If this guy, Brian Cole is saying, in fact he was someone who believed that the election was stolen from Trump, that’s just an incredible development.”
  — Sam Stein [11:25]

• On Pardoning the Pipe Bomber:

  "It is a little unfair to the pipe bomber... all the other crimes... were fine. But the pipe bombs that didn’t go off, this is the..."
  — Will Sommer [15:34]

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Tone and Style

The hosts maintain a sharply critical, slightly sardonic tone, especially in their analysis of The Blaze’s journalistic failures and their bemusement at right-wing media’s conspiracy contortions. Their back-and-forth is informal and conversational, with gallows humor and references to major media lawsuits.

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Conclusion & Next Steps

• The Blaze’s error is likely to go down as one of the most humiliating media faceplants of the post-January 6 era, with serious legal and reputational consequences looming.
• The arrest of Brian Cole doesn’t just exonerate the accused officer; it also dismantles a pillar of right-wing, “false flag” conspiracy theory about the Capitol riot.
• Will Sommer will continue to follow developments in both the lawsuit and right-wing media reactions in his “False Flag” newsletter.

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For more breaking analysis, subscribe to The Bulwark and Will Sommer’s False Flag newsletter.

Transcript

[A]

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[C]

Hey everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, Managing Editor Dubois. I'm joined by Will Sommer, author of False Flag newsletter. It's a big day day for Will because we could be getting the mother of all defamation suits at any moment. We're just kind of looking at pacer. I'm sure you're furiously refreshing. It has to do with the pipe bomb that was put down or pipe bombs, I should say on January 6. Big breakthrough in the case came yesterday when it was announced that we caught the guy. It's been five years. We're going to talk about in a second. But the reason we talked about defamation is because if people remember, Will wrote about this was a couple weeks ago.

[D]

Yeah, a few weeks ago.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

The Blaze had done incredibly scientific gate analysis and pinpointed the wrong person. The wrong fucking person they pinpointed for the pipe bombs. Now it's a huge embarrassment. So I've been following this a little bit from afar because I've been doing some other stuff. But Will, catch us up. What is going on here?

[D]

So the pipe bomb is important. Let's just lay the groundwork. The pipe bomb is important to the right because they think it was basically like the spark that made January six happen. I mean, Dan Bongino said that this was a false flag operation. The FBI was covering it up. And so the Blaze last month came out and said, well, it's probably this former Capitol Police officer who works for the CIA. But now they are facing journalistic disaster because the FBI has arrested an actual suspect. It's number one. It's not a woman, like the Blaze said. It is not the same woman. It's a totally different person. It's a guy named Brian Cole. And so now the Blaze is facing a massive potential defamation suit because, you know, you can't just really. In journalism. Did you go to J school, Sam?

[C]

I did, actually, yeah.

[D]

Did they teach you that typically you shouldn't write articles saying someone's probably a terrorist if you don't really have evidence of that?

[C]

I missed that. I missed that class, probably. But it seems to make sense. Yeah. This is like with the. With the Boston bombing suspects, right? Like the New York Post put them splattered the wrong person on the front page.

[D]

Exactly, exactly. So. So it's. This is a. It was kind of a crazy limb for them to get out on. I mean, they, like you said, I wrote about this in False Flag. I really get into, like, what their supposed evidence was. I mean, they already had kind of a beef with this Capitol Police officer because I think she had fired pepper balls at the rioters. So they felt she was really unfair to the rioters. They had an analyzed, I think, footage of her walking when she was playing in a college soccer game with footage of the bomber walking. And they said, well, you know, the gait analysis suggests she's a 96% match for the bomber. And to be clear, I mean, they were really not like, discreet about this at all. They didn't protect this person's identity because she hadn't been charged with anything. I mean, they splashed it out. They had her face. I mean, people were really going through her background. And the other thing I should say is, I mean, people, members of Congress, Anna Polina, Luna, Thomas Massie got into this. They promoted the story. Ed Martin at doj, he said pipe. Kind of like maybe they.

[C]

Yeah, but he erased. He erased the last P and E. Yeah. You remember that? He took down his half the tw. The tweet thread. Look, I would just say this, like.

I'm not trying to say, you know, I don't know how the Blaze operates, let's put it that way, but normally what you would do is you Would, first of all, you wouldn't go on whatever the hell gate analysis is, okay? And you would go to the FBI and you go to the doj and you'd say, hey, what do you think of this? Or like, can you comment on this? And maybe they would say, we can't comment on ongoing investigations. But I would imagine one of them would have been like, or someone there would have been like, yo, you shouldn't do this. This is, this is not. You're going to look silly like, don't do this. The other thing is, you would obviously go to the person you're accusing of being a terrorist, and you would try to get in touch them and be like, you know, we're going to do this. And, and I'm assuming maybe they tried and couldn't get in touch with this person, but I'm assuming they, they should have made a good, good faith effort. That person likely would have said, you're wrong. And she came up with.

Was it good out? It was an alibi, right? She, she had actually an alibi by where she was.

[D]

CBS News reported that she had video of her playing with puppies, which is kind of the perfect alibi, but somehow she was playing with puppies at the moment the bomb was planted the night before. And so basically. Yeah, and so I guess they said, well, you know, here is. I don't know how, you know, I don't know if it like panned to a clock or something to really prove it, but basically, like, they have this playing with puppies.

[C]

It's January 5th and it's 11:30pm had this alibi.

[D]

And this came up because the office of Director of National Intelligence run by Tulsi Gabbard had seems to have gotten wind that this Blaze story was coming. And they told the CIA where this person is now employed. They said, hey, looks like she's the pipe bomber. And so there was already this kind of investigation and she had been able to prove her innocence. So it's, it's truly crazy. And the blaze really dug in. I mean, even some of the kind of January six reporters on the right people like Julie Kelly were saying, I don't know, this looks pretty fake to me. They stuck it out till the end, till this new arrest.

[C]

So what's the reaction been from the site and from this person's the wrongfully accused lawyer? Yeah, so.

[D]

So first in terms of the Blaze, I mean, they were kind of throughout the day. I mean, look at the point where another suspect gets arrested. It's over for you. It's done. But they were. There was a point where the FBI spokesman was even. He was the reporter on this story, Steve Baker, who by him, who by the way was himself a 1-6- defendant who was pardoned. He was, he tweeted something about like, like a song or something, kind of a jab. And then the, the spokesman was, you know, what song are you listening to now, buddy? You know, oh, God. Big time to pay up.

[C]

So, my God. So the FBI turned on Steve Baker. Gotcha. Okay.

[D]

Yes, yes. And so, so the blaze kind of throughout the day was, oh, well, we noted that this guy was arrested, but our sources still believe that it was this woman. And then by then they retracted it, but they kept the story up. And then now, by this morning, they've totally deleted the story from the Internet. And in terms of the woman's lawyer.

[C]

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[D]

Yeah. I mean, as you said, you know, personally, what that something like that might be like. I mean, it's crazy. The you know, I don't know.

[C]

I don't know personally. I sorry just to be clear, I do not know personally what that would be like. I I don't know why Will said that. That's defamation right there.

[D]

From an editorial perspective you can imagine.

[C]

I've never been in a situation that's.

[D]

The kind of thing you're always doing. Sarah, we all know this the but because you know some of these things like we've had, you know, for example when Infowars said Pizzagate was real or that Fox News said, you know, Smartmatic or Dominion sold like a really definitive moment per se that that was disproven. I mean it was those things were fake but you didn't have a situation as resounding as a different guy getting arrested and potentially now going to trial.

[C]

Right.

[D]

Right. And so I mean they really the.

[C]

Closest again is the Boston Marathon bombers that this is the closest proximity to this.

[D]

Yeah. So it's, it's a disaster for them and it looks like it'll probably only get worse. Her lawyer has been pretty tight lipped. He issued a statement to the Washington Post saying you know, it was totally fake. That really had a lot the language suggested there's a defamat lawsuit coming. And then yesterday I was on Jake Tapper show on CNN and I basically said you know, it's payday time for this former Capitol Police officer. There's gonna be a big lawsuit. And her lawyer said you know, I don't have any comment but I did appreciate your your remarks on Jake Tapper. So I do suggest think that there, there is something. Yes. Maybe he just, maybe he just liked my analysis overall that that could be.

[C]

The other the other possibility.

Your verbal analysis not your gait analysis. This morning about two hours before we taped NBC reports shout out to Ryan J. Riley friend of the site that the man who was charged with planting the bombs this guy Brian Cole is cooperating with the FBI. But more significantly that he believed the conspiracy theories around the 2020 election. According to this is once two people familiar with the matter. This is you know I don't want to oh I think this is kind of like a seismic type news break in in that for years there's been a theory pushed by Dan Bongino among others on the right that the whoever put down the pipe bombs was it was an inside job that they were trying to frame the January six rioters as you know, terrorists. And Bongino's been like beating that drum nonstop until he became deputy director at the FBI. If this is true, if this guy, Brian Cole is saying, in fact he was someone who believed that the election was stolen from Trump, that's just an incredible development. And I'm sure Bongino will figure out something to say and others will too, but, boy, that seems like a big deal to me.

[D]

Well, and you know, Cash Patel just, just said after the arrest that the Biden administration, the FBI, was covering it up. And so now it's coming potentially that this guy is a, it was a Trump conspiracy theorist. You know, it really unravels a lot of the ideas about what the motivations behind the bombing were. It's funny to look at it now and you say, well, maybe, yeah, the Occam's Razor would be on the day that all the other crimes were committed by Trump supporters. Why would this one not also be committed by an election conspiracy theorist supporting Trump? And, you know, I'm sure we'll, we'll hopefully learn more about this guy's motivations. I think it's a bit interesting that at the press conference about this, they really revealed very little about his motivations.

[C]

Oh, no. They refused to answer questions. Right, right. They were like, they just didn't answer. Yeah.

[D]

So I think there's, hopefully there's more to come in court or if he's cooperating, I guess I'll have a guilty plea. But as you said, I think it's seismic. I mean, this has been one of the main narratives of right wing media since January 6, and really very exculpatory towards the actual rioters themselves because they're saying this, this distracted Capitol Police, this made them so mad at the rioters, and if it weren't for the pipe bomb, maybe this would have never happened. And so in that way, I mean, if this guy is himself an election fraud conspiracy theorist, it really, you know, it undermines a lot of that.

[C]

Well, I just want, you know, I always criticize other people for jumping the gun on these things, like, you don't know what you don't know. The first impressions can often be wrong. So I'm not. I want to just urge caution when going off of reports about motivations and things like that. Ryan's a really, you know, good reporter, so I trust what he says, but let's wait and see. You know, this has been so central to the pushback on all the January 6th prosecutions that, of course, the Occam's Razor explanation was always, at this point, person was actually a participant, not someone trying to, you know, frame them. So. But we'll see. All right, so where do we go from here? What's. What's the put. Put a, Put a flag down. What's the future for the Blaze here?

[D]

Well, for the Blaze, I. I think they may be cooked. I mean, I. They're not exactly. It's not like a Fox News situation where they can really cut a check for $780 million or whatever the Dominion settlement was, and, and walk away relatively unscathed. I mean, I think, you know, Glenn Beck was already distancing himself from the site beforehand. He's building an AI George Washington. You know, I think, trying to do a reinvention there. But, I mean, even they got.

[C]

They got that little Nick Fuentes clone. Right, Right.

[D]

They have the Nick Fuentes clone who I wrote about as well. People can read about that. I think the challenge for the Blaze is, I mean, even a settlement or a judgment of a couple million dollars, which I think this would definitely clear, is, you know, life threatening to them. I mean, they're still a pretty big voice in conservative media. I think in terms of the pipe bomber, though, I do want to raise one possibility, which is that the January 6 pardon would also clear him.

[C]

Yeah, so that was. We were talking about that on Slack today. It's an interesting theory.

I'm a little bit skeptical of it, but explain the theory and then I'll say why I'm skeptical.

[D]

Sure. So the pardon that Trump issued for the rioters applies to all crimes committed on or around the Capitol on January 6th and maybe January 5th, I think just January 6th. And so, you know, arguably, I mean, the RNC and the DNC, where the bombs were planted, I mean, that's near the Capitol.

[C]

Here's why I'm skeptical. Unless Trump's a total political nihilist, the idea that you would just say, yeah, you're right, the pardon applies to this guy, too. Now, they'll put out some clarifying language and say the DOJ is going to be like, no, absolutely not. This was just related to, you know, what happened on January 6th, or they'll find some legal way to sort of get around it. It's an interesting theory, but there's no universe in practice where they're just going to let it fly. Right.

[D]

I don't know. I think once the pardon's out there.

[C]

You know, you think this administration's going to say, you know what? You're right, like, the pipe bomber also deserves the pardon.

[D]

Well, it is a little unfair to the pipe bomber.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Because why is it that unfair? Well, all the other crimes we saw on January 6, the fighting with cops, the things we talked about for so many years afterwards that all that stuff was fine. And in fact, Trump, you know, issued a clarifying pardon to help one January 6th guy out on his specific related charge that apparently wasn't covered. But this, the pipe bombs that didn't go off, this is the.

[C]

You know, bomb.

[D]

The, well, the pipe bombs cause less violent damage than a lot of the other actions on January 6th.

[C]

You're crazy, dude. I'm willing to put money on this one. I'm, I mean, I don't. No doubt his lawyers, Brian Cole's lawyers are going to try to use this, but.

[D]

All right, I'll see you on Polymarket. We'll put on the. Yeah.

[C]

Put your money where the mouth is. Bet on. I'm sure Polymarket has some odds here. Okay, well, we'll revisit this one. And I know you're. Well, I, I, I want to. Actually, I'm going to hold you to it. You're writing about this from Monday. Sorry, you just are.

[D]

This is a seismic moment. I can't miss it.

[C]

You can't miss it. So everyone sign up for false flag so you can get Will's written analysis in addition to this video analysis. Will, thanks so much, buddy. Appreciate it.

[E]

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[B]

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